Midseason rankings for MLB's biggest awards: Can P...
Key takeaways
- The Cy Young Award has always been strictly for pitchers, so that would mean two distinct groups of big league players competing for two distinct awards, with no overlap.
- Pitchers have won MVP awards several times, even though those winners didn't have Shohei Ohtani's built-in advantage of being a premier hitter and premier pitcher.
- The reason I bring this up now is Pete Crow-Armstrong, who is fresh off an epic June that propelled him to the best position player AXE in the majors.
Why this matters: a sports story that could shift standings, legacies, or fan conversations.
Matt Dirksen/Chicago Cubs/Getty Images Bradford Doolittle Jul 3, 2026, 07:00 AM ETClose MLB writer and analyst for ESPN.com Former NBA writer and analyst for ESPN.com Been with ESPN since 2013Multiple Authors Email Print Open Extended Reactions What if the MVP award were just for position players?
The Cy Young Award has always been strictly for pitchers, so that would mean two distinct groups of big league players competing for two distinct awards, with no overlap.
Pitchers have won MVP awards several times, even though those winners didn't have Shohei Ohtani's built-in advantage of being a premier hitter and premier pitcher. Pitchers have always been eligible to win MVP, and there is no reason they shouldn't be. In reality, though, pitchers face an uphill battle in MVP voting, due, at least in part, to the opinion of some that "pitchers have their own award."